Twenty-five years of prize-winning poetry selected from CALYX Journal. This outstanding collection presents a diversity of poets who illuminate a poetic tradition in womens literature that was submerged during much of the 20th-century. Here womens voices pierce that obscurity with a fierce and dazzling brightness that is expansive, fertile, joyous, and powerful. Included among the more than 50 poets are: Julia Alvarez, Anna Akhmatova, Olga Broumas, Chitra Divakaruni, Marilyn Hacker, Barbara Kingsolver, Sharon Olds, Molly Peacock, Eleanor Wilner, Wislawa Szymborska, and Elizabeth Woody.

CALYX: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women was founded in 1976 by Margarita Donnelly, Barbara Baldwin, Meredith Jenkins, and Elizabeth McLagan. An award-winning journal, Calyx prides itself on its insistence on aesthetics, diversity, and literary quality. Published twice a year, the journal is easily recognizable by its beautiful and stunning cover art, and applauded for its outstanding literary quality. In a 1992 interview, Donnelly says of Calyx, "...we are rebalancing the imbalance that's been out there for so long. In our culture, there is still a lot of inequality. Our commitment is to developing voices that aren't often heard." The word calyx refers to the outer covering of the flower, which falls away as it blooms. In its more than 20 years of existence, helped along by knowledgeable and committed volunteers, it has provided an opportunity for over 2,000 women's voices to bloom in its poetry, prose, art, and book reviews.